Specimen Roach....

[soffit]

Bagged one today. It was probably almost a pound!! But, when every other fish on your river is a nimble 4 to 6 ounces the specimen is too slow to get there first?

It gave me great pleasure I have to say but the downside it was caught by chance.

The 4 to 6oz chaps are a lot of fun on light tackle especially when caught at the end of the swim. But you woudn't be human unless you craved a bigger something or other now would you? So far I have tried bottom fishing and lobworms to weed out the little-uns but to no avail...

 

[peter crabtree]

Maybe try a golf ball sized piece of flake on a big hook to catch the bigger roach, alternatively a lump of luncheon meat.

 

[soffit]

Maybe try a golf ball sized piece of flake on a big hook to catch the bigger roach, alternatively a lump of luncheon meat.

Yer. Got some size six hooks with that in mind. Am thinking of some bread paste bait stiffened with a dose of Parmasan. You seen the price of luncheon meat? I like to feel I eat better than my prey

 

[BarryC]

I don't know about rivers but I seem to get some bigger fish on prawns, but then if you want to eat better than the fish.

 

[dangermouse]

You seen the price of luncheon meat? I like to feel I eat better than my prey

Not sure where you are but around here it`s £1 a tin in Fultons and a couple of other places. B&M were doing 3 small tins for about £1.20.

 

[Keith M]

Once you get Roach feeding well on Maggot or Pinkies a change over to caster will often sort out the larger ones in the shoal. also leave a few caster out of your water to dry so that you have a few floaters; then put a floater plus a sinker on a size 18 hook to make your bait sink more slowly, which often helps.

NB. You can even make maggots float sometimes by putting a few in a thin layer of water (which is shallow enough to still allow them to breath).

Also continue feeding a few maggots or pinkies together with a few caster to keep the shoal there; but don't overdo the loose feed especially at this time of year; around 3 to 5 maggots and 3 to 5 caster every minute or so would usually be enough (adjusting this amount to the number of bites you are getting), but keep it up even if you are not getting bites; and don't spread your feed all over your swim, concentrate your loose-feed into a small area.
Breadflake, and small lively redworm are other good baits to use.

I catch my larger Roach on streams and small rivers tight up or just downstream of reedbeds and by creases in the current where faster water rushes past slacker water where the roach often jostle for position amongst the Chub waiting for food to drift past without them having to expend too much energy; and the baits I find most effective during the winter are Bread Flake, Maggot, Caster and small lively redworm.

hope this helps
tight lines and good luck.

 

[soffit]

My problem of winkling out the larger specimens is a bit of an oddity; not the normal run of things....

The river, at least where I fish it, is 'Canalised' and about 20' wide. Just after the SWW for some reason I am too lazy to go to the county archives to find out the authorities decided to make a canal through a marsh that empties into a lake. Over 60 years it has developed very few fishy slacks unless the river is in spate and most of those can be overwhelmed when it really get going. So the big-un's share the space with the Little-un's effectively...


There may also be a limit on the size of the roach. According to a few adults I have spoken too who fished it when they were kids. According to these peeps the river only had trout and perch until a hatchery for a stillwater lake got flooded upstream and released a load of roach. Its got to be in the last 15 years and the river doesn't look too full of good nutrition.

In the summer it's hard-pressed to be two feet deep and the fish are spread around evenly with a small spooky shoal here and there in very clear water.

Normally everyone that walks their dogs along the river note the shoaling of fish each autumn. Lasts a couple of weeks on average. The river is thick with fish in one or two spots then they dissapear. This year it has lasted two months,coming on three now.I expected them to scatter in the huge flows recently. All they did was to stop feeding until the river dropped. Blanked one day then twenty-ish the next In a hour session...